ac suction line placement?

First off am in process of building my own 2400sf house, and boy did I not know what I was getting in to. hehe. Contractors are busy as heck and I am on too many waiting lists. Am doing MOST of the work myself. I tore down the existing house, with my wife's help, backhoed around the entire old foundation and waterproofed it and added drain tile. Used treated lumber to raise the foundation above grade (old house had water running toward foundation...nice) and make a nook. Poured a 25' footer with premix (sore back) and build a foundation wall to support 2nd story portion. Did all of the first floor decking myself. Helped a contractor do the rough framing of a lot of the house and finished a lot myself. Put titanium u-lay on the 8:12 roof myself, and fell off twice. (luckily had a safety rope, but ironically it was the rope that i slipped on both times.) Built a large shed roof covered porch. again using good ol premix for the footings. Made the mistake of hiring an electritian to do rough in hoping he would be reasonable and save me time. Yikes! I have an electrical engineering degree so was looking forward to wiring it myself, but let my dad talk me into hiring him. Did a good job, but 10,000 for 3 days work...(plus materials, but looking at the margin on the materials...rape) It is only 80% complete. Anyway...I am ready to shoot myself over the stress of this monster of a DIY project, so glad I stumbled onto this site.

Now my question Can you locate a suction line in a wall cavity. I am going to put my air handler in the attic on the 2nd story and need to know if i run the line down outside of the house (ugly) or can I put the suction line in the wall? I know it needs to be insulated so it doesn't buildup condensation. I am having insulation folks spray foam in the stud cavities, so I could have them surround the line with foam as well. Thanks for listening

ac suction line placement?

Advertisement

ac suction line placement?

that was a very informative response.

I live out in the middle of nowhere, no one cares, no one enforces codes other than electrical...and I saw the electrical inspector once and he approved my rough in when I know for a fact, having studied the code book, that electrician violated several codes! So nuts to the damn code...I am on my own and trying to build it right ... so why not ask someone who might have expertise in this area what the pros/cons would be... isnt that what this chat is for. Self righteous know-it-alls like you really piss me off.

ac suction line placement?

Suction line is run within walls all the time. Get the preinsulated linesets.

Be prepared to rip up the wall if the lineset every needs to be replaced. (possible reasons are future efficiency upgrades or different refrigerants).

You also better study the installation manual for the units. Large vertical runs have special considerations such as capacity degrading factors and may require the use of inverted refrigerant traps. There are also length limitations.

I'd also be concerned that nail going thru the wall could puncture a line. Look into some form of conduit or other protection.

I agree that refrigerant lines attached to the outer building wall can be very ugly. However I'd be tempted to box them in vs. running them within the wall. There are special refrigerant line ducting systems kind of similar in size to gutter downspouts.